The Charge

"I'm not sure if I'm unhappy because I'm not free, or if I'm not free
because I'm unhappy."—Patricia Franchini

Opening Statement

Throughout the 1950s, a group of young Frenchmen with a passion for cinema
(especially American cinema) began to change movie history with their insightful
film criticism, published primarily in the journal Cahiers du
cinéma. They were on a mission to destroy the perception that movies
were throwaway entertainment; movies were art—or so these critics claimed.
Their writing resulted in, among other things, the creation of the auteur theory
that elevated the reputations of popular Hollywood directors like Alfred
Hitchcock, John Ford, and Howard Hawks, and the coinage of the term "film
noir" to describe postwar Hollywood B crime pictures that contained more
intellectual and artistic substance than initially met the eye. By the end of
the '50s, these critics were no longer content writing about cinema. They wanted
to make cinema. They set a new goal for themselves: The creation of a cinematic
voice unique to France, one that appreciated the enormous impact of American
pictures but didn't merely rip off their style. One of the most influential
international film movements was born.

The French New Wave hit the scene with the force of a hurricane, due in
large part to the release of two films: François Truffaut's The 400 Blows in 1959 and Jean-Luc
Godard's Breathless (based on a scenario written by Truffaut) in 1960.
Breathless, in particular, self-consciously challenged the language of
cinema, while also making a case for the artfulness and intelligence of
Hollywood genre pieces, and establishing a hipster chic style of European film
in the 1960s.

Facts of the Case

After gunning down a police officer in the French countryside, Humphrey
Bogart-obsessed petty crook Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo, A Woman is a Woman) absconds to Paris.
There he meets up with Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg, Bonjour Tristesse), an American
journalism student and aspiring novelist with whom he had a brief fling. The two
hole up in Patricia's apartment where they engage in existential conversations
and lovemaking. Their future as a couple is uncertain. When Patricia realizes
that Michel is not the man he claims to be, she takes decisive action.

The Evidence

Any plot description of Breathless makes it sound like a pastiche. It
is not. The movie is one part loving homage to American crime dramas and one
part critical examination and deconstruction of the methodology of filmmaking.
Based as it is on a scenario written by Truffaut, Breathless is one of
Godard's most straight-forward features from a narrative standpoint. The
emotional stakes in Michel and Patricia's relationship feel very
real—surprisingly so, given Godard's later, more intellectually abstract
work. Though he acts like a cad, we feel sympathy for Michel because what we see
appears to be an invention of his own imagination, based on the tough guys he's
seen in American crime movies. Little that he tells us about himself is reliably
true, other than that he is a small-time crook and that he did murder a police
officer. He plays the sexually liberated rugged individualist, but there's a
naiveté in his interactions with Patricia that suggests it's mostly an act.
When he tells Patrician that he slept with two women (who did not meet his
standards) since the last time he saw her, it may be true or it may not. Either
way, there's an underlying insecurity in his bragging, just as there is earlier
in the movie when he (too) casually claims he wouldn't mind working as a gigolo.
Michel is a poseur, a kid who plays at being the sort of world-weary man
Humphrey Bogart made a career of playing, but who has little real experience in
the world. We learn quickly enough, however, that there's nothing illusory about
Patricia's embrace of free love. Her sexual options are plentiful. In one scene,
she attends a press conference and is hit on by a world-renowned novelist
(played by Jean-Pierre Mellville—director of Bob le Flambeur and Le Cercle Rouge—whose embrace
of American genre forms was a major inspiration for the French New Wave). If
Michel pretends to be worldly, then Patricia actually is worldly—at least
by comparison to Michel. She's from New York (a city Michel considers far more
cosmopolitan than Paris), and is a student of journalism educated in literature
(Michel, who only knows cinema, is so ignorant of books that he's never heard of
William Faulkner). In genre terms, Patricia's greater sophistication relative to
Michel makes her a femme fatale by default if not by intent. But unlike the
dames in classic films noir, it's not Patricia's malice or remorseless sense of
self-preservation that prove to be Michel's undoing; it is her casual amorality.
In the end, Michel falls prey to the very American style of amoral individualism
that he so romanticizes throughout the rest of the picture.

Despite the movie's crime storyline and use of light suspense, Godard's
artistic sensibilities and tendency towards postmodern tomfoolery are on full
display in Breathless (though not as developed as in his later work).
From a technical perspective, the film is renowned for the director's aggressive
and playful (and sometimes downright intrusive) use of jump cuts. In some
scenes, a single stretch of dialogue by a single character stretches across a
half dozen jump cuts. The audio delivers a flowing continuity that contrasts
sharply with the jarring quality of the visuals. It's a conceit that Godard uses
to remind viewers that they are watching a movie, a contrivance that relies on a
defined vernacular of editorial tricks. Godard has made a career of such
reminders. In one particularly self-conscious sequence, Michel and Patricia
drive through Paris in a stolen car. As Michel delivers a long soliloquy meant
to seduce Patricia, the camera is trained exclusively on her, shooting her in
three-quarter profile from the back seat so that we mostly see her graceful
neck, the back of her head, and the Parisian cityscape whizzing by. The sequence
is punctuated by a series of rhythmic jump cuts that emphasizes the technique's
conventional use in demonstrating the passage of time by blatantly violating
that convention: Though the city streets repeatedly change in the shot's
background, Michel's speech flows uninterrupted. The disconnect between what we
see and what we hear reminds us of the artifice of cinema. Whatever our
emotional attachment to Michel and Patricia, they are not real and neither are
their problems. This competition between the movie's crime plot and its
deconstructive tendencies might have resulted in an incoherent mess, but
Godard's intelligence and youthful energy resulted in a movie that is both a
heartfelt entertainment and an insightful examination of cinema as a narrative
medium. Breathless' groundbreaking style was imitated by moviemakers all
over the world throughout the 1960s, but none of the imitations had the same
potent mix of style of substance. Godard would go on to make better films than
Breathless, but none as important.

Throughout the early years of DVD, North American fans of Breathless
had to content themselves with a Fox Lorber DVD release of the movie that
offered up a mediocre (at best) transfer of the film. The Criterion Collection
rectified that situation with a fine two-disc Special Edition DVD released in
the autumn of 2007. That DVD release is the basis for this Blu-ray. The
1080p/AVC transfer is sourced from the same high definition master used for the
DVD. Breathless cinematographer Raoul Coutard approved the master, which,
according to Criterion's liner notes, was sourced from a 35mm fine-grain master
positive and treated to a full digital restoration. The image displays subtle
contrast, excellent detail, and a fine patina of grain unmarred by digital noise
reduction or other processing techniques. A few isolated scenes show weakness in
the source in the form of muddy contrast, but overall Breathless looks
excellent in high definition—certainly the best it has ever looked in a
home video format (and likely better and more consistent that it has even
appeared in theatrical exhibitions).

There is but one audio option: a Linear PCM two-channel mono presentation of
the movie's original analog audio track, in French. The track is flat with
cramped dynamic range, but is also clean and free of hiss. It sounds about as
good as a French New Wave movie from 1960 can.

The set's dual-layered Blu-ray disc contains all of the supplements from the
previously released two-DVD release, all of which have been treated to a high
definition upgrade:

Interviews This quartet of video featurettes includes vintage
interview segments from French television. There are two interviews with Godard
from 1960 and 1964; a Jean-Paul Belmondo segment from 1961; a sit-down with Jean
Seberg from 1960; and a segment in which director Jean-Pierre Melville discusses
Breathless. The entire reel runs 27 minutes.

Coutard and Rissient In this contemporary interview (it was
conducted by the Criterion Collection in 2007), famed cinematographer Raoul
Coutard and Breathless assistant director Pierre Rissient reflect on
their experiences making the film. The piece runs 22 minutes.

Jean Seberg Filmmaker Mark Rappaport (From the Journals of
Jean Seberg) contributes this video essay about the American actress and her
most famous role in Godard's French New Wave classic. The piece incorporates
footage from Breathless and still photos of Seberg. It is 19 minutes
long.

Breathless as Criticism This second video essay,
assembled by film historian Jonathan Rosenbaum, analyzes Godard's revolutionary
use of self-conscious cultural references throughout Breathless. It runs
11 minutes. Rosenbaum explores how Godard's experience as a film critic was
crucial to how he infused his movie with meaning.

Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède This feature-length
documentary finds French television personality Claude Ventura revisiting the
people who made Breathless, as well as the picture's locations.
Interviewees include Belmondo, Coutard, and Rissient. The piece was made in 1993
and runs 78 minutes.

Charlotte et son Jules This pre-Breathless short film by
Godard features Belmondo and French actress Anne Collette in a witty and highly
intellectualized lovers spat. The presentation is full frame, 1080p/AVC. The
short runs just shy of 13 minutes.

The disc also contains a French trailer for Breathless.

Finally, a hefty 80-page insert booklet contains a lengthy and informative
essay by film scholar Dudley Andrew, a collection of Jean-Luc Godard interview
excerpts, a translation of François Truffaut's film treatment which Godard
presented to producer Georges de Beauregard and which eventually became
Breathless, Godard's expansion of Truffaut's treatment, detailed notes
about the audio and video transfer, and information about the feature's cast and
crew.

Closing Statement

What do you expect me to say? It's Breathless, one of the most
significant motion pictures ever made. If this Blu-ray doesn't qualify as a
must-own for every cinephile with high definition gear, nothing does.